We are now ready to announce our
2003 ISU Congress. It will take place in the "Kursaal" of Besançon,
in the East of France. Besançon has no international airport, but is
not far (less than 150 km) from Geneva or Bale-Mulhouse int’l airports. It is
easy to reach from Paris by fast trains, some of them direct from the Paris-CDG
International airport, in two and half hours.

Besançon is a very old city
located at the foothill of Jura mountains, primarily built in a loop of the
river Doubs. The narrow southern end of this loop is closed by a steep hill
on which a big citadel was built, allowing the city to grow during the middle
ages.

The city developed during many centuries
within the river loop, but started to extend out the loop in the 18th
century, and is now a medium size city (120,000 inhabitants) with a world wide
famed industry (watches, electronics, precision mechanics… and a first rank
university.

Besançon is the birthplace
of many great people, such as the poet and novelist Victor Hugo (1802) and the
philosopher Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809), and, more interesting for us, the
brothers Auguste (1862) and Louis (1864) Lumière, who created the cinema,
the stereo cinema, the colour photography (autochromes) and the "photostéréosynthèse",
a process for making stereo pictures which can be viewed without special glasses.

The "Kursaal" was built
in the core of the city in 1892, as a circus with a brasserie and gamble rooms.
The business did not work long, so that the city bought the building and started
restoring it since 1980. They decided to use it for public shows by the city
and by other cultural societies.

There is an auditorium with 300 seats,
but this one was supposed to be too small for our stereo projections, it will
be used for new technology 3d shows such as cinema, video, computer animation...
In the gallery around this auditorium, 3D images such as SIRDS, holograms, anaglyphs,
lenticulars, can be displayed.

The stereo projections will be held
in the upper large (26 meters diameter) and finely decorated (19th
century paintings on the ceiling) room. Three other large rooms (over 1000 sq
ft each) can be used for equipment and image shows, and two smaller ones (600
sq ft each) for workshops and meetings. There is also a bar for drinks and rest.

There are many hotels within a walking
distance from the Kursaal (500 rooms in the 2 and 3 star range), and many small
or larger restaurants with tasty regional cuisine all over the old city. Other
hotels (also 500 rooms in the 2 and 3 star range) are located in the suburbs.

Out of the stereo slide shows, the
congress will include a full-day excursion and several shorter guided tours
in the historic city, in the Museum of Time which is presently under restoration,
and in the Citadel. These excursions will be excellent opportunities for bringing
back home plenty of original stereo pictures.

Keep note of the dates of the congress :
May 28th to June 2nd, 2003, at Besançon (France).

If you want some additional
services in France, after subscribing to the congress, our tour operator Sylver-Tours,
who is already in charge of managing the registrations, the excursions and the
hotel booking for the congress (contact@sylver-tours.com)
can also book train tickets, other hotels in France, rental cars etc. for you.